[V8] another quandry

[qshipq]

RogerMy sig O drives an SRX 3.6.  Good machine, and so far fairly reliable.  Gas mileage is much lower than one would expect from the 3.6, but otherwise a decent machine.  Personally, if you are considering that seriously, take a look at the AWD v6 Toyota Venza.  A lot of machine for the money, and the v6 awd driveline is silky and excellent mileage to boot.  It is tough to jump into the millenium, as bulletproof machines are tougher to find.  A natural progression from a c4 avant would be the Venza.  Good luck on your quest.  I personally stayed in the v8 quirky brethron and went for the v10 touareg TDI to replace some aging urs6 machines.  CheersScott JSent from my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S9.
-------- Original message --------From: "Roger M. Woodbury" <rmwoodbury at fairpoint.net> Date: 3/10/19  12:04 PM  (GMT-06:00) To: v8 at audifans.com Subject: [V8] another quandry Well, I'll admit this has next to nothing about V8 Quattros. I'll only mention Audi here because I am not going to mention Audi further.  My quandry is of a different kind.We're moving. Well, not right now, but hopefully we can move out of here THIS year.  Our plans are to build a new, high efficiency house that is on one floor someplace "in the woods".  We actually have the land picked out and it might actually happen.Once we do that, we will need to add a vehicle.  I don't WANT to do that, but we will need to have a primary vehicle that is reliable, safe and a pretty good carrier of things.  Once moved I will plan on retiring the truck to "truck like" things, perhaps mounting a plow if we are far enough off the main road.Here's the problem. See, right there on the floor?  Those long scratch marks?  Those were made by me being dragged into the twenty-first century in the car shopping exercise.  It hasn't been pretty.Last August the transmission in my truck died almost instantaneously one Saturday morning.  It had been 15,000 since I bought it so I harbor no ill feelings toward the used car dealer who sold it to me: the truck had over 125,000 miles on it when the tranny blew up and the truck had been used to pull a travel trailer most of it's first dozen or more winters.  (At least it didn't stay in southern Massachusetts all those years which is why it is nearly rust free).  Anyway, a new transmission makes it run like new and I'm a happy camper.  A 2002 GMC truck that runs like new:  how much better can it get than that.BUT. The end of October last year my wife suffered a heart attack.  It was a good, clear and dry night and I just put her into the truck and drove her to the hospital.  From there she was airlifted to the big medical center in Bangor which is what they always do whenever they can.  But the nagging question is, if that event had taken place in August when I had NO truck, how would it have played out, considering it likely would be half an hour before an ambulance could have reached us?  So, obviously we need two vehicles at all times given where we live now and how we want to live later.So the qualifications:  1. A station wagon is ideal                                     2.  All wheel drive is mandatory                                     3.  Reasonable operating costs including fuel:  huge engine unnecessary                                     4.  It's a guess but when we are ready to do this, we will likely be looking for something in the 2011-2014 year range because more than five years old the state's excise tax is at its lowest point.I have come to realize that I know NOTHING about vehicles built much after 2002.  So I have been reading a lot and watching a lot of Youtube videos.  What I have learned is that for the most part, vehicles now are essentially unchanged form when my 1990 Audi Quattro was built.  My observation is that unless you buy a really small car made in some country out at the edge of the Pacific Rim, fuel mileage is essentially unchanged in real world driving conditions:  20 miles per gallon overall is considered to be "good".   (Huh?  Whatever happened to saving fuel and not burning so much into the atmosphere?)The only other thing that has changed is that while cars have become much faster, they also have become MUCH more electric and computerized.  I guess they've become faster so they might outrun the electronic gremlins that might overtake them?What I have found is that the chances of getting anything close to a station wagon is pretty much out there in fantasy land.  I rather like the looks at the Volvo V70, but those are now really old and most on the market have a gazillion miles and are very expensive.  I rather liked the looks of the Honda Crosstour, but those cars while plentiful and not all with huge miles, are really pretty expensive, too. At least right now.I don't want an SUV or ANY type.  I don't LIKE them, consider them very overweight and inefficient and plus:  even used they often will have a gazillion miles and still be expensive.I like the Cadillac CTS4 station wagon a LOT.  too bad they only made a handful  between 2010 and 2014.  They are not at all common, but the ones I have seen for sale, where Carfax data was present, seemed to have really good and complete service histories at Cadillac dealers.  Probably owned by older people who believed in having the car serviced, ya think?  Maybe.But  I've never actually been up close to one and the comments that I have read which concern me is that the CTS wagon is closer in size to the A4 and I don't think that will be large enough.  On my list of things to do this year is to actually see a CTS wagon at some dealership that I can sit in and see first hand.  I'm going to Massachusetts late next month, so maybe then.So then there is something else I have been looking at which might be the thing:  what I said about NOT wanting above?  Well, there's those finger nail scratches once more.  I'm thinking a LOT about a Cadillac SRX from around 2012-2014.  That's the right size and it's not just a rebadged Chevy Tahoe.  Reasonalble operating cost and being a GM product, probably can be serviced adequately without needing to go to a European specialist who has special German-speaking auto-cardiac monitors.  I think the price will be right....around twelve grand.I saw an interesting video on  Youtube last night. A salesman at a Caddy dealership gave detailed video instructions about how to program the SRX.  YIKES!  I'll need to call my granddaughter and as her to program the damn thing so I can drive it, I guess!I don't want to be yanked into the 21st Century where driving is more like operating a pin-ball machine, but there it is....RogerP.S.  And you few V8Q types are the only people I know who might be patient enough to let me vent....._______________________________________________Audifans V8 mailing listSend posts to: mailto:V8 at audifans.comManage your list connection: http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/v8You can help keep the audifans site running by shopping at http://audifans.com/shop/